Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,594; 5,505,214; 5,530,225; and 5,591,368 disclose various electrically powered smoking systems comprising electric lighters and cigarettes and are hereby expressly incorporated by reference. The systems provide smoking pleasure while significantly reducing side stream smoke and permitting the smoker to selectively suspend and reinitiate smoking. During operation of such smoking systems, condensate can collect on various parts of the heating fixture. In order to remove such condensates, the smoking device may include a heating component which is used to drive off such condensates. Even with such a heating component, it may not be possible to remove as much of the condensates as desired. Further, the smoking pleasure derived from the smoking system may be adversely affected by condensate build-up in areas which cannot be sufficiently heated to drive off the condensates.
Commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/176,028 (Attorney Docket No. 021238-264) entitled, "Cleaning Unit for the Heater Fixture of a Smoking Device", inventors Joe Banyasz et al., filed Oct. 21, 1998, discloses several embodiments of cleaning units for spraying water on selected locations of a heater fixture to remove condensate, and is expressly incorporated by reference. A difficulty with these cleaning units is the need to have a sufficient supply of water, usually a conventional tap, to remove the condensate with running water over a period of time. These cleaning units are typically connected to the tap, and may not be able to be easily used if a standard tap is not available. It is desirable to provide a cleaning device that does not require a large amount of water to remove condensates from a heater fixture, and that need not be connected to a water supply tap.